Customer Reviews

Mystery of the Mind: A Critical Study of Consciousness and the Human Brain

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I found Wilder Penfield's research with epileptic patients, fascinating. Reading his accounts of subjects responding to his "poking around" in their brains inspired me to read on. I was amazed that such poking could cause the recollection of detailed memories or the bodies of his subjects to react consistent with the area poked. It is remarkable that this brain surgeon was so puzzled by the fact that he could find no "record" in the brain of decision-making. His analogy of a "programmer" for the "computer/brain," gave even more data to the assumption of a "spirit" that resides in a person until death. I found it a reinforcement of what I already believe, but also surprising that a physician, who was not intending to propose such a hypothesis, came to such a conclusion. The book is very interesting reading for anyone who is interested in the workings of the brain or who is inquisitive about the existence of a "spirit" or a "mind" in human beings.

I found Penfield's writing about the "mind" and "spirit" to be fascinating. Scientists know what part of the brain is responsible for things like speech, sight, memory, sight, hearing, movement, etc. But what makes humans act and think the way we do? What is responsible for thought, reasoning, conscience, and those things that cant be measured? He describes the brain to be like a "computer that needs to be programmed". I found all his writing to be very interesting and informative. Some of the medical information was over my head as a lay person. But as a former patient of Montreal Neurological Hospital who had this very surgery while Awake for epilepsy, it brought back many memories of how they "poked" around in my brain and it created sensations in various areas of my body. For anyone interested in how the brain and mind work, this is an easy to read, interesting book. Like Dr. Feindel says in the introduction:" the brain is the most organized structure in the universe".

This book was deep and lost me several times but the work to get back made me think. I would reccomend that this one should be read in a very quiet place.